NFL, Unions, and the Difference Between Rich and Poor

If you haven’t heard, the American football season of ’11-’12 is probably done for. The Player’s Union and the League have both settled in for the long haul and veterans of the Vegas scene have started taking bets on the duration of the lockout ahead. Football players have started exploring other options as well, including (gross) Canadian football. Has it come to this? Proud American men trading in their stars and stripes for 3 downs and a maple leaf?

While we at PBH hope that the battle between millionaires and billionaires gets resolved in time for another disappointing Redskins season, the battle itself raises an interesting question: why does it seem like the only effective unions in America anymore are professional sports unions?

Typical Canadian football

It’s the little guy who always gets fucked, in professional sports as in life. Ken Lanci of Cleveland is such a little guy. As a Cleveland Brown season ticket holder, you may think that he enjoys being kicked around and would take disappointment as his given lot in life. But even Ken Lanci has his limits. And yesterday, Mr. Lanci filed suit in the Cuyahoga County claiming that his PSL (Personal Seat License), purchased so that he could have the privilege of buying a season ticket, was a binding contract between him and the NFL, guaranteeing him the ability to purchase a full season’s worth of tickets. Some choice quotes:

“What tipped the scale for me is the labor issue between millionaires and billionaires and the fact they can’t settle it when the country is in a recession,” he said. “Worse yet, they have to rub this in our faces….. The owners and players can’t decide what to do with an extra billion dollars between them,” Lanci said. “I have the perfect solution. That one billion should go to all cities that gave them money to build football stadiums they couldn’t afford to build. This would give these cities badly needed tax relief.”

****************

Where have all the unions gone? Union membership has declined from 35% of the workforce at its height, to 12.4% of the workforce today. The public sector unions, the strongest in the nation, are now in serious fight for survival, as across the country, state governments have been repealing collective bargaining rights for state employees. Without unions who will lobby for workers rights against corporate rights?

GE recently reported profits of $14 billion dollars this year, and a whopping tax bill of -$3 billion dollars. That’s right, the American taxpayer gave GE $3 billion dollars. And where does that money go, this corporate welfare? Certainly not to the common man, who has seen their share of the wealth diminish, while the richest 20% of Americans now control 84% of the wealth. And yet the constant chorus heard from the halls of Washington to the TV news broadcasts echoing in homes across America is that it is the common man who must tighten their belt. It is the unions who must take salary cuts, while corporations report record earnings, and CEOs receive record pay days.

An Indiana prosecutor resigned this week after encouraging Scott Walker to use false flag attacks on those protesting his dismantling of the unions. Staging an assassination attempt to discredit a non-violent protest movement is insane. But imagine a union composed of brain-damaged rapists and felons, whose professional talents involve hitting things extremely hard. If a disgruntled and deranged Ray Lewis-type goes after Roger Goodell, look for the man from Indiana.

Please imagine, if you will, that this is a clip of Reggie Jackson as a homicidal robot programmed to kill the queen, ala the Naked Gun, instead of an anti-coke ad.

****************

References:

Rising wealth inequality (nyt)
Fan sues Browns (nbc)
Labor unions in the US (wiki)
GE avoids taxes (nyt)
Indiana prosecutor resigns (c+l)
Walker intends to sell power plants (madison.com)
Americans live in Russia, but think they live in Sweden (reuters)